


Constance

by icandrawamoth



Category: Within the Wires (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cats, Comment Fic, Community: comment_fic, F/M, Pets, Season/Series 03, animal injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 15:22:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17205896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icandrawamoth/pseuds/icandrawamoth
Summary: You don't realize how much presence a cat has until they're not there anymore.





	Constance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tigriswolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/gifts).



> For a comment_fic prompt: "author's choice, author's choice, you don't realize how much presence a cat has until they're not there anymore."

For the most part, Michael only puts up with Connie. She's really Vivi's cat, and as long as she makes his wife happy, he's happy enough having her around.

Until the day they come home to their house broken into and the cat gone. Michael doesn't even realize at first, too caught up in the confirmation that he has been begin followed after all, the harrowing search of the house with his wife, knives in hand, that uncovers nothing missing and no one else present.

That's when Vivi cries out from the living room, and Michael rushes in to see the spots of blood on the cat's bed. His stomach roils even as his hands find his wife's arms and offer comfort. She must have fought the intruders, their brave bet, he reasons. She's probably fine. She could be hiding anywhere in the house right now.

Reassured that they're not in imminent danger, they search the house again, calling Constance's name softly and peeking into every nook and cranny. Nothing.

She must have gotten out, run away from whoever entered their home while they were gone, Michael says. Yes, Vivi agrees tearfully and picks up the phone to start calling neighbors, asking as she holds back the franticness in her voice if anyone has seen their cat.

Michael sits on the couch and waits for her to finish, strangely numb as he listens to her and thinks. He should be worried about the men following them. He should be worried about his life, about Vivi's life. Instead, he's worried about the damn cat.

He's only ever put up with her, loving the sparkle in Vivi's eyes as she cared for the injured thing after they found it and eventually claimed it as theirs. Connie has always liked her better, always climbing into Vivi's lap when she became bold enough to stop hiding from them all the time. He's only actually gotten to pet the cat himself a handful of times since that first night he picked her limp body up off the ground.

Still, he'd gotten used to her presence. An orange blur at the corner of his vision. Watching him from her spot atop the bookshelf as he went about his business.

It's strange not having her here. He never noticed how much Constance had lived up to her namesake – always there, a steady presence in his life he hadn't realized how much he'd taken for granted.

When there's a scratch on the door late that night and they open it to have the orange blur dart in between their legs, Michael's knees go weak with relief. Fear darts through him when he sees the way her ear has been removed with surgical precision – a threat from their unwanted visitors – but as Vivi explains it away, crooning about their girl having gotten into a fight, he lets himself forget it for now.

Michael puts an arm around his wife where she's cuddling the cat and gently strokes Connie's back, taking a moment to appreciate the small blessing of having her back alive and mostly in one piece.


End file.
